"I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
as long as I'm living
my baby you'll be."

-Robert Munsch

I remember having this book read to me in pre-school, and reading it again in elementary school. Containing only around 70 words (most of them repeated), it starts with illustrations of a mother whispering that verse while tenderly cradling her newborn child. It continues as the infant learns the mischievous ways of a toddler, moves on to sketches of teen life, with the child eventually becoming an adult. All the while, the loving mother is never far away; always helping, always caring. The final drawing shows the middle-aged "infant" gently holding his frail and dying mother. Their roles now reversed, he speaks those same words as he watches her near the end. Such simple words, yet it humbles me that i haven't truly felt their meaning until now:

"I'll love you forever,



I'll like you for always,



as long as I'm living



my baby you'll be."



...we love you grandma.


RIP May 2, 2006